Tag Archives: mentoring

Real estate in Kansas City, and every other market across the country, is a local business and people do business with whom they know, like and trust. The National Association of Realtors 2011 profile of home buyers and sellers, surveyed home buyers and sellers and asked them why they chose the agent they worked with. Here are their findings:

If the number one brand in real estate in kansas city is YOU – let’s take a look at where most new and seasoned agents have the best opportunity for growth:

More new agents and seasoned agents are beginning to PROFIT FROM THE TRUTH and are no longer buying into the rumors our competitors are feeding them.

Are you hitting your potential? What does the next level of success look like for you? Who at your current brokerage is helping you get there? How much longer are you willing to wait to make what you deserve?

Getting Seller Listing Leads in a Hot Market Can Be As Easy As 1-5!

For July, while we are hanging on to this seller’s market here in Kansas City I wanted to share some effective strategies to increase your listing inventory. So this whole month I will be posting 5 strategies for picking up new listings in Kansas City or any market for that matter. These listing strategies are simple, easy and effective. If you are not implementing lead generation activities for picking up listings then you are really missing out in this real estate market shift.

5 in July Listing Strategies

Getting Listings from Your Database or Sphere of Influence

Getting Listings from Open Houses

Getting New Listings From your Geographical Farm

Getting For Sale By Owner Listings or FSBO Listings

Getting Expired Listings

Why work three times harder?

Why do we focus on getting listings leads for our business? One word – LEVERAGE. If we have listings we have an opportunity for three transactions, let me explain. First, you sell the listing. Second, that seller also needs to buy a new home. Third, you will get sign calls that can be converted to buyers, and who knows they may also have a house to sell. There is also a bonus, if the caller is unrepresented and wants to stay that way then you can double side the transaction.

So listings equal leverage. You don’t have to be there to show them and they have the opportunity to turn into multiple transactions. When you have a steady listing inventory you don’t have to focus on getting buyer leads, they will be coming to you. Not enough buyers? Simple, get more listings! So stay tuned for the next post, where we dive into your Database and the Acres of Diamonds there.

Are you looking to convert more For Sale By Owners into listings in your market?

Regardless of the market, one of the best listing opportunities are still the For Sale by Owner, or FSBO (pronounced Fizz-Bo by most Realtors). There are several reasons why FSBO’s are still and have been one of the best listing opportunities for realtors and they are:

They have already “raised their hand” that they want to sell.

Most are already willing to work with agents who have buyers, so getting in touch and creating a relationship is fairly easy.

There are usually plenty of them to prospect and they have their phone numbers and emails readily available.

So why aren’t more agents listing For Sale By Owners in their market?

While the reasons vary, most agents don’t convert FSBO listings due to several reasons. Do any of these apply to you?

Since FSBOs are called on by many agents early on, they may get a frustrated individual on the phone and it makes them feel bad, that “All FSBOs are just MEAN!”

They don’t have anything of value to offer when they follow up with the For Sale by Owner so each call feels like they are bothering them.

These are just several of the main reasons why most agents give up on FSBOs and why you can use this information to your advantage.

A few stats on For Sale By Owners that you need to know.

94% of for sale by owners do not sell on their own.

Information so you can effectively list more for sale by owners in your market.

of those that do sell, they sell on average 11% less than if they would have been represented professionally.

The biggest obstacle that FSBOs face is getting the property priced right

The second biggest obstacle is understanding and executing the paperwork.

So what can I do to convert more For Sale By Owners into more listings?

Truly come from contribution and don’t be like every other agent who is just going in for the listing. If you approach FSBOs with a real regard to help them, they will remember that when they decide to explore a professional listing.

Be sure to have information, or items of value, available to help a FSBO in their sale. The stats are still valid, and most will not sell due to lack of exposure and marketing, but they will remember the agent who actually tried to help them sell.

Actually follow up when you said you would. If you told them you would call every week to check in on them and they said it was okay, THEN DO IT! Sure week one, 15 agents are calling. By week two that number is in half. Week three there are maybe you and one other agent calling. By week 4 it is you and only you.

Recap:

Converting for sale by owners into listings in your market and in Kansas City does not have to be a stressful and painful experience. Keeps several of these lead generation tips handy and you will be increasing your listing inventory like clockwork.

If you want to take this conversation even deeper and discuss the specifics of your action plan and what items of value you leave with your FSBO prospects, just contact me for a private and confidential consultation. Worst case scenario is that you leave with some great information that will help you grow your business.

Overcoming NO in real estate sales and in Life – changing the way we look at asking for what we want!

I had a recent conversation with a dear friend about their business and we came across a really great subject that I wanted to take a minute and go over with you. In a nutshell, we were talking about our respective services and that there were times when their bids seem high and they sometimes freeze before presenting them for fear of rejection – fear of the NO.

The word NO is such an interesting word – only 2 letters – but those two letters have the power to completely paralyze us and cause us to fall into inaction. So why is that? My daughter is about to turn three and she is fearless when it comes to the word NO, she will ask and ask for hours to get what she wants, sometimes getting 10-15 no’s until either I tire of the struggle and say yes, or she gets bored of the asking and moves on. At what point in life do we lose this never ending desire to get what we want?

So what is the main fear behind NO?

Rejection. We all want to be liked and making a call, meeting with a client or asking for something you want puts us in a vulnerable state. Asking someone to work with us or choose us puts us in a position that if they say no, it can oftentimes feel like they are rejecting us personally, even though more than 95% of the time it has nothing to do with you personally. They are usually just not ready for your service, or you have not demonstrated enough value for them to make any type of switch.

Don’t be tied to the result! – A pro baseball player in the hall of fame strikes out 70% of the time during their entire career! What kind of career do you think they would have if they got discouraged after 2 or 3 strike outs?

Make collecting No’s a game. – If it’s about numbers, then if your goal is to get to 30 No’s a day, then imagine how many Yes’s would be sprinkled in there. Also, notice the mind shift, if you are making calls to get No’s then what happens when you hear one? That’s right, success! The Yes’s are in there and they will come out.

Never forget that if you never ask then the answer is always NO.

So get over your fear of NO! It’s little, it’s insignificant and most importantly it’s just two little letters that are standing in the way of your true potential and life changing opportunity.

The Confession

So this week at my accountability weigh in that I share with my Facebook friends in order to keep me on track, I came across an opportunity to elaborate on a little concept that we talk about a lot at Keller Williams Diamond Partners. Before I get to it let me share with you, I wanted to take a second and apologize to everyone that I fell out of integrity and that this week I did not loseweight, in fact I gained half a pound back.

So, I’m standing there, a bit dejected and starting to get really embarrassed and thinking “great, now what am I going to post on Facebook?!” So, with my pride deflated, I wanted to turn this into an opportunity for learning and share some concepts that we talk about:

When we are winning, it is at that time that we have to focus on our fundamental tasks and actually work even harder. (Just ask K-State what happened right after they received their #1 ranking this year – Baylor? Really?!?!) anyway…

We get into coaching and accountabilitynot because it’s fun, or easy, but because, by nature, we cannot hold ourselves accountable – or at least not to our true potential. If you are not in coaching or mentoring at some level, then you are leaving growth opportunities on the table – period.

The Hard Lesson

#1 can never take a week off

Point number two is what I wanted to elaborate a little bit on. If you noticed last week, I was on week 3, had three weeks of nice losses, and even mentioned that I was able to start doing some points in my head. Well, just like in our businesses, when things are going good, we are receiving referrals and you have had several closings this month and have a couple in the pipeline – what is the first things that falls off your schedule? YUP – Lead Generation! Then 30 days go by, and you are through celebrating your recent past success and look ahead and now there are no closings, or maybe just one small deal. So point number two happens to be the answer to so many agent’s question “When does the income roller coaster stop in this business?” Simple – consistent lead generation regardless of production.

For me this week, my points tracking completely fell off my radar and I got lazy. My scale doesn’t care what I did last week, it just posts results. We have a saying in the office “You can have reasons or results, but you can’t have both.” Well this week, I had to face the reality that I just did not do what I was supposed to and my results reflected that 100% – I only have myself to look at.

Getting back to Integrity

So, let me refer back to a BOLD theory called PTFAR – (Pronounced Pointfar) which stands for Programing leads to Thoughts which affects our Feelings which lead us to taking Actions and actions produce Results which go back to changing our Programming.

This week’s Scale in reference to PTFAR:

Programing – this week’s results triggered an embarrassed and pissed off reaction in me.

Thoughts – I had to go back to what I did and didn’t do, and reevaluate and put a plan together to get back into integrity.

Feelings – I am embarrassed to share with everyone that did not take steps towards my goals this week, this feeling SUCKS!

So you have taken Ignite and you graduated BOLD – Congratulations! You have conditioned yourself to lead generate, you have found who to call and you are calling! Great! You even made an appointment! Fantastic! They have not signed with you yet but want to stay in touch, you tell them “no problem, I’ll call you weekly” and they even give you permission to!

So why is that phone number still terrifying to call back, even after you got the permission to stay in touch?!?!?!? You have FOLLOW UP FREEZE UP! A common occurrence of Real Estate Call Reluctance and we can eliminate it!

So I spoke with your Drunk Monkey, and after slapping him around a bit, he confessed and told me what he told you, do these sound familiar?

Beware of the negative talk coming out of this guy!

“Don’t call them, you are annoying! You JUST talked to them, they are sick of you! What are you gonna say, you are just going to stutter and sound STUPID! Why call, they are never going to list with you! I bet you are the 30th Realtor calling them today!”

Here are 3 tips on Thawing Out the Follow Up Freeze Up and destroying call reluctance in real estate.

Get permission on the prior call or meeting by saying, “I want to make sure my database stays up to date, can I call you next week to check in on your price and see if you are still for sale?”

Drop off or mail an item of value and then make that the topic of discussion for your next call. “Hi it’s Mat, just following up like I promised I would. How have your calls been? Any Offers? Hey, did you get that ‘xxxxx’ that I mailed to you? What did you think? Any questions? Talk to you next week!”

Have a tip or article prepared to share with them and then use it as an opportunity for another drop by or a mailing.